First,
unless we are alive when Christ “returns again in glory to judge the living and
the dead,” we have to die before
Jesus can give us his permanent treatment.
Second,
we have to believe in God, and that we can be saved by grace through faith,
including while going through suffering and at the same time striving to
love our neighbors as ourselves to some meaningful degree.
I
am not in the least opposed to people taking care of themselves through diet,
exercise and proper medical care. All
that, in fact, is good Christian stewardship of the bodies which God entrusted
to us. What I am lampooning is
the extravagant sums some people spend on their vanity. For 45 or 65 year-olds, say, to strive to
look like lovingly-cared for 45 or 65 year olds is good; for either to strive
to look like plastic versions of 25 year-olds is pathetic, and even
blasphemous. We are all made “in
the image of God” in the words of Genesis, and in the words of St. Paul, “Our
bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.”
Isn’t that good enough?
And think how many
lives could be saved if the money spent on Botox alone was spent on
anti-malarial mosquito netting for Central Africa so that the children there
would have a better chance of living to become 25 years old!
Enough
on that. Let’s now think positively. If we face the reality that we are
mortal, that we will age and that, by the grace of God, we can receive forgiveness
in this life (as witnessed in the reading from the First Letter of John) and
sometimes healing in this life as well (as witnessed in the reading from
the Acts of the Apostles this morning), and that also by the grace of God we
may receive the ultimate gift of new life beyond this mortal life, how
then should we face our mortality?
We
should face our mortality with joyful
hope for the ultimate future, with respect
for the bodies we now live in and through, and with love for those nearest and dearest to us and the rest of humanity
and all God’s creatures, great and small.
Respect
for our bodies and love for others are not opposites (as exemplified by
any who spend money on cosmetic surgery for themselves while dismissing the
needs of the poor for basic health care).
Respect for our bodies and love for others are inextricably linked
for Christians.
Our
bodies can be a source of life for others when we no longer need our
bodies. I have two significant words of
Christian stewardship on my driver’s
license: organ donor. If I die, say in a car crash, my heart, my
kidneys, my lungs, my corneas could save or transform the lives of several
people when I no longer need those items.
I
believe God can and wants to give me a new body when this one no longer
works. I also believe that there will
be others still alive to whom I can show my love by making life-saving or
life-changing gifts. God only knows who
they might be. I don’t need to know.
So
I ask you to consider being an organ donor.
Information is on the table in the Welcoming Area. You can limit your offer to certain organs
if you wish. And of course, the rest of
your body can receive a proper burial or cremation in accordance with your
wishes, whatever they may be, which leads us to the next topic.
All
of us will eventually die. Check. Many of us will have significant medical
care decisions to make, maybe on several different occasions, before we die. What do we wish for?
Also
on the table in the Welcoming Area is a booklet provided by Deacon Barbara
called “Five wishes.” The five wishes
are:
The person I want to make care
decisions for me when I can’t.
The kind of medical treatment I want or
don’t want.
How comfortable I want to be.
How I want people to treat me.
What I want my loved ones to know.
If you want your
wishes carried out “when the time comes” (that’s my family’s euphemism for
death or terminal illness), you need to think about them, decide
what they are, write them down and have them witnessed. Otherwise, whoever else makes decisions
about you – someone will, trust me –
will have to guess what you want, or go by what they want, or the law
requires in the absence of instructions by the patient.
Alternatively,
you can have an attorney draw up a living will and a durable power of attorney,
but you still have to face – and answer – the same questions.
If you’ve been
brave enough to stay with me so far, the last part can actually be fun. It’s called writing your will, as
opposed to your living will.
Fun? Sure – you get to stop the State of New
Jersey from having supreme authority over your money and over any minor
children or other dependents you have!
Is it fun when
you discover another deduction you forgot about until just before filing your
taxes and you end up paying less in taxes than you expected to? I
sure like that – especially when Elda and I get to decide what to do with the
extra money that would have gone to the government! It makes that fun we have extra fun.
But how many
people gleefully claim every legitimate deduction they can think of – and
then die without leaving a will? That puts the State of New Jersey in charge
of where their money goes. That’s what is going to happen if you don’t
write your own will.
And while
federal estate taxes affect fewer people than they used to because the minimum
size for a taxable estate has risen a lot, guess what: the state of New Jersey is still in the
taxation business too (as if we didn’t know), and the minimum size for an
estate to be taxable in New Jersey is only 1/3 the size of the minimum for it
to be subject to federal estate taxes.
What’s far
scarier for parents of children under 18 is that, if they don’t have wills and
name guardians for their children, the state has complete control of the
process of naming guardians for those children.
Not what I
wanted when Tom was under 18. But
maybe some of you like the idea of some judge you’ve never met deciding the
fates of your children or grandchildren.
One thing the
state will never do, of course, is think about charity. This is fun, too! After you’ve chosen guardians (if you have
minor children), inventoried your assets, decided who among your family and/or
friends gets what items or share of your assets, you can decide how to express
your love for other people and causes which will still be around after
your death.
If you
write your will, you can decide that.
Often times, people realize that the needs of their heirs can be
adequately or appropriately addressed by 90% of the assets they leave behind,
so they can tithe their estates to
charity. If you decide that you would
like your generosity to last longer than your lifetime, you can give to
charities through your estate, including to St. Barnabas, in your will and/or
by buying a charitable gift annuity now.
Charitable gift annuities provide a steady, predictable income for you
now, potential immediate tax savings for you now, and benefit to the church at
your death.
All these are
things to think about, because after all “we can’t take it with us” – and we
don’t have to, because heaven is
all-expenses paid. The cost of
salvation was paid in full by Our Savior on the cross.
So, this Easter
Season, let us reflect on our mortality with joyful hope for the new life beyond this life which God offers,
with respect for the bodies we now
have, and with love for others and
for the world which God so
loved that he gave his only Son, to the end that all who believe in him should not
perish, but have eternal life.
(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church